A friend and I were brainstorming some ideas for our homebrew fantasy setting and I mentioned that I was planning a game where all the PC's would come from the same town and share a friendship whilst growing up. I further went on to illustrate how the locals would jokingly refer to them as "The Knights of Tregan" (Tregan's Eye being the township). After also mentioning some of the politics involved and how I wanted to start the group with a strong bond and ties to this community and set them up for a possible clash with the ruler of the township, he came up with this seriously brilliant idea.
That's why I keep him around; occasionally he's useful like that
Anyway, I thought I'd share the idea because (for me at least) it breaks away from the traditional ideology that meta-gaming is a bad thing. It is therefore something that I probably never would've thought of, so I'm guessing that many other people who have been taught DM'ing based on the same concepts as I have, might not think in this direction either.
The idea is fairly simple in concept and as long as you can be creative on the spot, shouldn't be too hard to implement. The concept centres around having the antagonist receiving reports on the PC's actions and exploits, and describing that scene to the players, as if everyone involved is in some sort of movie.
A for instance would be something like a person reporting to his superior about the PC's. As a DM I would describe the scene, the NPC's, and their discussions about the PC's as if the PC's were flies on the wall. To start with it might be something like reports of the PC's descriptions, basic skills, or whatever could be gleaned about them based on things they'd already done or their histories. Then you switch to the players using some sort of inspirational set-up, like the NPC saying, "This group is becoming a nuisance. They may have to be dealt with!" and the reporter saying, "Wait until you hear about what they did next..." and you throw to the players.
Every so often you'd halt the action at the table and switch back to the NPC's as they incredulously remark on the player's previous actions, and you could toy with the players doing things like saying, "As luck would have it, we managed to capture two of them at the (name of the inn the PC's just entered before the DM switched to the NPC's). They were not forthcoming on the whereabouts of their friends and unfortunately Grigor was a bit... enthusiastic about his questioning. We have set-up unmarked graves so that nobody will be able to identify the corpses," at which point you then throw back to nervous-looking players
Of course, the players find some way to avoid this fate and so you throw back to the NPC's who says, "It seems, however, that eyewitness statements attest and corroborate the liklihood that four, and not just two, of the group managed to escape the inferno of the tavern fire, so we cannot be assured as to the identity of those... unfortunate interrogation deaths."
Now, these are just some examples my friend and I threw about whilst discussing the concept. But I can see this being a LOT of fun for both the DM and players. There's a lot of potential for using meta-game information as a story-telling technique. It could really enhance the sense of being not only IN a story, but of creating the story as it goes along.
Another cool example my friend thought of was to do a lead up to a final confrontation with the antagonist and do something along the lines of, "Our final reports mention that the group was asking around in town about how to get into our..." and then you describe the door bursting open and describe the PC's from the NPC's perspective before asking for initiatives
That's why I keep him around; occasionally he's useful like that
Anyway, I thought I'd share the idea because (for me at least) it breaks away from the traditional ideology that meta-gaming is a bad thing. It is therefore something that I probably never would've thought of, so I'm guessing that many other people who have been taught DM'ing based on the same concepts as I have, might not think in this direction either.
The idea is fairly simple in concept and as long as you can be creative on the spot, shouldn't be too hard to implement. The concept centres around having the antagonist receiving reports on the PC's actions and exploits, and describing that scene to the players, as if everyone involved is in some sort of movie.
A for instance would be something like a person reporting to his superior about the PC's. As a DM I would describe the scene, the NPC's, and their discussions about the PC's as if the PC's were flies on the wall. To start with it might be something like reports of the PC's descriptions, basic skills, or whatever could be gleaned about them based on things they'd already done or their histories. Then you switch to the players using some sort of inspirational set-up, like the NPC saying, "This group is becoming a nuisance. They may have to be dealt with!" and the reporter saying, "Wait until you hear about what they did next..." and you throw to the players.
Every so often you'd halt the action at the table and switch back to the NPC's as they incredulously remark on the player's previous actions, and you could toy with the players doing things like saying, "As luck would have it, we managed to capture two of them at the (name of the inn the PC's just entered before the DM switched to the NPC's). They were not forthcoming on the whereabouts of their friends and unfortunately Grigor was a bit... enthusiastic about his questioning. We have set-up unmarked graves so that nobody will be able to identify the corpses," at which point you then throw back to nervous-looking players
Of course, the players find some way to avoid this fate and so you throw back to the NPC's who says, "It seems, however, that eyewitness statements attest and corroborate the liklihood that four, and not just two, of the group managed to escape the inferno of the tavern fire, so we cannot be assured as to the identity of those... unfortunate interrogation deaths."
Now, these are just some examples my friend and I threw about whilst discussing the concept. But I can see this being a LOT of fun for both the DM and players. There's a lot of potential for using meta-game information as a story-telling technique. It could really enhance the sense of being not only IN a story, but of creating the story as it goes along.
Another cool example my friend thought of was to do a lead up to a final confrontation with the antagonist and do something along the lines of, "Our final reports mention that the group was asking around in town about how to get into our..." and then you describe the door bursting open and describe the PC's from the NPC's perspective before asking for initiatives
